{ARC Review} THE GIRL FROM THE WELL by Rin Chupeco

Book Title: The Girl from the Well
Author: Rin Chupeco
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publishing Date: August 5, 2014
Length: 304 pages
Source: Publisher via Netgalley

The Ring meets The Exorcist in this haunting story about an American boy whose last hope for protection lies with a vengeful ghost

Okiku wants vengeance...and she gets it. Whenever there's a monster hurting a child-the same way she was hurt 300 years ago in Japan-her spirit is there to deliver punishment. But one American boy draws her like no other. The two are pulled into a world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from the American Midwest to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan. The boy is not a monster, but something evil writhes beneath his skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos. Can Okiku protect him? Or is her presence only bringing more harm?

I would like to start my review with some status updates. I rarely make status updates, but this time I did.
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08/02			7.0%	"creepy wonderful beginning. the broken structure of the writing is powerful, but feels like I'm going mad myself. obviously based on the ring legend. wonderful descriptions of malice"
08/02			42.0%	"The constant counting is...hard to describe. Bothersome but I think because it solidifies her personality, her feeling of vexation and being trapped. Love the unique names. So sad for Yoko and her choices and Tarquin. Calliope is fantastic. What a wonderful young woman."
08/02			47.0%	"idiot girl. tell him what you know!""

This to me is where I should start my review. This book definitely had a creepy, wonderful beginning. And as the story unfolds, you quickly realize or can draw the correlation to the legendary asian/japanese stories of The Grudge and The Ring. The ghost's counting will make you feel as if you're going mad, however. LOL This is the first time I've read a book written this way where it didn't anger me. It was incredibly powerful to have her thoughts broken into mish-mashed phrases and words, trickling down the page. I thought, at first, it was a structure problem with the advanced unedited copy, but it soon becomes apparent that it is a device the author uses on purpose.

As I read on and learned more about Tarq and his mysterious tattoos, my forehead creased with a frown, puzzling out why his mother went crazy. And you learn more about the ghost who is intrigued by him so much so that she takes an interest in him and follows him around. This is not her usual. Her usual is to track down those who abuse and kill children and take care of them.

The horror scenes are horrific, as they should be. If I were watching this as a movie, I would probably be peeking through my fingers at the scene. As that makes it hard to read,  I instead was glued to my kindle absorbing every word. While you feel wholly bad for Tarq, you feel relief that he has Calli as his cousin and you begin to appreciate Okiku for all that she does.

I don't want to say more about the plot. Some of it is very recognizable if you are a horror buff or are familiar with asian legends. I smiled to myself as one story about the girl who haunts toilets was revealed; my mother, who is korean, told me many a ghost story and that was one of the more well known ones. I don't want to give away one iota of Yoko and her history, Okiku's legend, or how Tarq and Calli fare. I want you to read this. Go into it with an open mind because the writing can be off-putting. Not the writing, but the chosen structure, which serves to highlight Okiku's imbalance and personality and slight madness from being a few hundred years old ghost. All told, this was a wonderfully told tale with high creep factor that will have you keeping your lights on...and perhaps jump a little if they suddenly flicker off.

{Book Review} Unwell by Marie Chow

Book Title: Unwell
Author: Marie Chow
Publisher: Career Student Productions
Publishing Date: January 2014
Length: 258 pages
Source: Author for honest review

How do you tell your child that you won’t be there when they grow up? UNWELL is the raw, honest story of a mother who writes to her unborn child, sharing her decision of choosing not to be a mother. She doesn’t take the road to abortion. She decides to give her child a fighting chance in life, without the angst and drama that’s shaped her own bittersweet life.

With a poignant lack of emotion, the young mother shares her life story. As the child of Asian parents who moved to America early in her life, the mother shares how her life disintegrated after her parents’ divorce. From upper middle class suburban to sharing her mean aunt’s house to a one bedroom apartment in a shabby neighborhood, this mother endures the indignity that comes with the change of status. From her father’s absence to her mother becoming a married man’s mistress, her story reads like a tragic Victorian novel set in the 21st century, but that’s where the similarity ends—she is definitely not a shy country miss and she certainly did not take the easy way out.

This amazing story chronicles the life of a woman who fought for everything she got, faced her demons and made the hard choices. Her fortitude and candor are disarming, her avant-garde views strangely endearing. You’ve never read a book like this and probably never will again. Get your copy today and take the literary journey of a lifetime. Through this glimpse into the life of a woman of integrity, sacrifice and love, you’ll feel her pain, live her failures and cheer for the meager joys that come her way. But the one thing you’ll never do… is forget her. Or her story.

Goodreads | Amazon

I am not quite sure where I stand on this book. It left me unsettled even after I spent a night totally engrossed in reading it. I agreed to read and review when approached by the author because it appealed to me on a variety of levels. It is about an asian american young woman talking/writing to her unborn child. I liked the asian aspect as I myself am half-asian and thought it'd be interesting to read a story about an american raised asian child. The main character is also about my age, so there is that appealing factor as well. And then I liked the idea of writing a letter to her unborn child.

What I did not expect was the kind of letter she was writing to her unborn child.

For such an emotional event such as pregnancy, the protagonist is very removed from her pregnancy. And yet there is some poignancy as she remarks about how excited the baby's father is for the impending arrival. The mother gives her history to her baby, writing it in a journal, and it isn't a sweet story. It's a story about divorce, and her parents' failures, and her mother's choices, and ultimately how those events shaped the mother's life.

It's an emotional book. I don't think you'll cry, but you'll probably comment on the mother's words and choices and actions and think, "what a jerk!" and you'll pity the protagonist as you see this emotional disconnect that she has. She wishes for a great love for her unborn baby, but wants nothing to do with being a mother herself.

I am truly uncertain as to how this ends. Is she writing a long suicide note? Does she plan on just leaving? With her history of mental illness and distress, I leaned towards suicide as the implication. She is giving her baby life, but taking her own in the process. Very sad, very moving, very very unsettling. I've never read anything like this before. I am not sure if I liked it because it was just so incredibly realistic, especially as I think about conversations with friends and coworkers. But I didn't hate it. I'm unsure how to categorize something like this. It's moving. It's unsettling. Is it a favorite fiction novel I will reread over and over? No. Am I glad I read it? Yes. It makes you think and imagine what it might be like with you in that woman's shoes. 

Book Review: Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Stormdancer, The Lotus War Book #1
by Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Published: September 2012
Length: 313 pages
Edtions: print and ebook
Source: Purchased

A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A HIDDEN GIFT
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire


A_TiffyFit's Review: I had been meaning to pick this book up and read it for several months now. When I received an ARC in the mail of KINSLAYER, Book 2 in The Lotus Wars series, I started to try and carve out time for Stormdancer. *kicks myself in my ass* I seriously needed to read this earlier. Months and months earlier. MONTHS AND MONTHS EARLIER. As I write this, it's currently 6:34AM. My eyes are bleary. My body is protesting. But my mind and my heart are wide awake. And all because of this book. I started reading a few hours ago intending to put it down and get some sleep. Yeah, okay. 

You could sum up this book in one word before you start to geek out: WOW! And then you have to geek and rave. From the very first few pages, you're immediately thrown into this...steampunk feudal Japan. It is a horrifying dystopia where the air and land are ruined, driven by the Lotus Guild to make their machines, killing the land and its people. The poor cover their mouths with cloth and squint their way through the harsh sun; the rich have mechanical breathers and fancy goggles to ensure they don't get black lung. The skies are burnt red. There is nothing alive or organic in Kigen. 

I love when authors don't explain every little thing you may not be versed in and just immerse you into their world. That's what a glossary is for. Instead, jump into this world, experience it with my character, and let me hold you under my spell for a few hours. Oh, boy did I! 

The world may as well be in front of me, I think I may have coughed a couple times as we were given the description of the black choking rain, the poor mother obviously dying and her little girl standing next to her. The characters are so real they could spring from my kindle and I wouldn't be surprised. Their emotional interactions are palpable. My eyes teared up at Yukiko's memories, and then again when she's fighting with her father, Masaru.  So, you have this marvelous setting and these incredible characters that leap from the page, and so much action and intrigue! 

Yukiko is a wonderful heroine. She is strong, resourceful, sympathetic, smart-mouthed, feminine, and petulant. Yes, petulant at times as you would expect a 16 year old to be. But her petulance is justified as she doesn't have all the information. She isn't whiny and doesn't do that "why me!!!!????" crap. She's a thinker, a reasoner, she listens, she processes, she acts. 

The fight and action sequences are intense, detailed, and kept me glued to my kindle. There were only two things that made my face scrunch up briefly in a question. The mad shogun/emperor is fighting a war against the gaijin or foreigners, right? So, the samurai with the jade green eyes? I'm half-asian. That side of the family doesn't come with green eyes (yeah okay I'm semi quoting the movie Big Trouble in Little China. Shush!). So is he part-gaijin? Or is he Impure? Diachi and Kaori also have grey eyes. Same question. But really, WHO CARES? This was an amazing, five star read for me. I loved the action, the characters, the setting, the plot, the mythology, the story telling, the steampunk dystopian fantasy flavor, all of it. Go. Run. Get it. 

P.S. Jay Kristoff says on his website that he doesn't believe in happy endings. Life & death are part of this crazy thing we call life. I was well-satisfied with that ending. WELL SATISFIED. And while it may not qualify as a happy ending, it was an amazing one. I don't know if I want to sleep or launch into Kinslayer right now.